RELEASED:  Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Samb Named UW-Stout Women’s Golf Coach

Menomonie, Wis.--Howie Samb is beginning his first season as the UW-Stout women’s golf coach.

Samb attended Spring Valley High School, and continued his education at UW-Stout, majoring in Business Administration.

Samb, who attained a Class A membership from the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America in 1989, has spent his last 25 years serving as a head golf professional or general manager at three south-metro area golf clubs, two of which were rated 4.5 stars in Golf Digest.

As a head golf pro, Samb’s responsibilities included course maintenance and golf instruction to golfers of all levels.  His students ranged from novice golfers to fellow professionals and everything in between.  

Samb’s playing career includes amateur golf in the Chippewa Valley Golf Association, and professional tournaments in the Minnesota section of the PGA. 
Samb will accept his coaching duties in addition to his position as an instructor in Stout’s Golf Enterprise Management program.

Some of Samb’s goals for the team include his emphasis on making each athlete the best she can be.  He will accomplish this by teaching proper swing mechanics to create more repeatable and consistent swings, and stress smart course management skills to lower scoring.  As a program, Samb would like to increase participation, and become a consistently competitive team that has fun on and off the course. 

Samb belongs to a family of four, consisting of his wife, Penny, his son, Garrett, and his daughter, Natalie.  Penny also graduated from UW-Stout, and now works in Minneapolis for a company called Thrivent Financial as a commissions controller.  Natalie is a junior at Burnsville High School, where she plays on the golf team.  Her team finished first at state in 2007, where Natalie took sixth place individually as a sophomore.  Garrett plays college golf at UW-Eau Claire, where he maintains a one (1) handicap.  Both Natalie and Garrett earned Minnesota PGA Junior Players of the Year for the south-metro region in 2005, becoming the first ever brother-sister tandem to accomplish that feat.

Samb is currently enrolled in the Training & Development masters program at UW-Stout.